Yeshe Gyatso () (1686–1725) was a pretender for the position of the 6th

Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama (, ; ) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" (圣识一切瓦齐尔达喇达赖喇嘛) given by Altan Khan, the first Shu ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. Declared by

Lha-bzang Khan Lha-bzang Khan ( Mongolian: ''Lazang Khaan''; ; alternatively, Lhazang or Lapsangn or Lajang; d.1717) was the ruler of the Khoshut (also spelled Qoshot, Qośot, or Qosot) tribe of the Oirats. He was the son of Tenzin Dalai Khan (1668–1701) and ...

of the

Khoshut Khanate The Khoshut Khanate was a Mongols, Mongol Oirats, Oirat khanate based in the Tibetan Plateau from 1642 to 1717. Based in modern Qinghai, it was founded by Güshi Khan in 1642 after defeating the opponents of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism in ...

on June 28, 1707, he was the only unofficial

. While praised for his personal moral qualities, he was not recognized by the bulk of the Tibetans and Mongols and is not counted in the official list of the Dalai Lamas.

Appointment as Dalai Lama

Pekar Dzinpa, later known as Yeshe Gyatso, was born in 1686 near the banks of Dzun Khulkhawa Karpo in

Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibet, Tibetan regions, the others being Domey also known as Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The official name of this Tibetan region/province is Dotoe (). The original residents of ...

. He may have been the natural son of the

Khoshut The Khoshut (Mongolian language, Mongolian: Хошууд,, qoşūd, ; literally "bannermen," from Middle Mongol language, Middle Mongolian ''qosighu'' "flag, banner") are one of the four major tribes of the Oirats, Oirat people. They established ...

prince

. He entered the Drepung Monastery at a young age in 1699 and later moved to the Chakpori Hill in

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

, where he stayed at the medical college. The Khoshut rulers were protector-kings of Tibet from 1642 to 1717, but had a limited political role since the Dalai Lama or his ''desi'' (regent) held most of the authority. The ambitious Lha-bzang Khan succeeded to the royal dignity in 1703 and set out to change this. In 1705, he eliminated the powerful ''desi'' Sangye Gyatso and then moved against the young 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, whose libertine conduct he purported to resent. Tsangyang Gyatso was arrested and declared deposed. The king, collaborating with the imperial Chinese authorities, dispatched the prisoner towards the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

court in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. However, Tsangyang Gyatso died on the way in November 1706, either murdered or succumbing to illness. At this time Pekar Dzinpa was still a

lama Lama () is a title bestowed to a realized practitioner of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. Not all monks are lamas, while nuns and female practitioners can be recognized and entitled as lamas. The Tibetan word ''la-ma'' means "high mother", ...

at the Chakpori medical college. Now Lha-bzang Khan pointed out the young man as the ''real'' 6th Dalai Lama. He officially proclaimed his supposed son in 1707 under the pretext that Tsangyang Gyatso had been erroneously initiated as the

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the Philosophy, philosophical or Religion, religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new lifespan (disambiguation), lifespan in a different physical ...

of the

5th Dalai Lama The 5th Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (; ; 1617–1682) was recognized as the 5th Dalai Lama, and he became the first Dalai Lama to hold both Tibet's political and spiritual leadership roles. He is often referred to simply as the Great Fif ...

(d. 1682). The

Panchen Lama The Panchen Lama () is a tulku of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Panchen Lama is one of the most important figures in the Gelug tradition, with its spiritual authority second only to the Dalai Lama. Along with the council of high la ...

gave him both novice vows and the vows of full ordination at a grand ceremony before the Jowo image in Lhasa. As Dalai Lama he received the name Ngawang Yeshe Gyatso, or Yeshe Gyatso for short. In Beijing the

Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 165420 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, personal name Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign of 61 ...

initially supported the claim and issued an official recognition on 10 April 1710, thus dunning the Tibetans to recognize him and obey Lha-bzang Khan.

Contested claims

The new Dalai Lama was praised for his moral behaviour and considered a great holder of religious authority. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the Tibetans and Mongols regarded the young man as an

usurper A usurper is an illegitimate or controversial claimant to power, often but not always in a monarchy. In other words, one who takes the power of a country, city, or established region for oneself, without any formal or legal right to claim it a ...

and imposter, and he was never recognized by the Buddhist clergy. People irreverently referred to him as Kuzhap Pekar Dzinpa (Mr. Pekar Dzinpa). Shortly afterwards, Tibetans in Eastern Tibet announced that they had found the reincarnation of the recently deceased Tsangyang Gyatso, thus the

7th Dalai Lama The 7th Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatso (, also spelled Kalzang Gyatso, Kelsang Gyatso and Kezang Gyatso; 1708–1757), was recognized as the authentic 7th Dalai Lama of Tibet. He was seen as the true incarnation of the 6th Dalai Lama, and was enthr ...

, near Lithang in the province of

. The boy had been born in September 1708, and would later be known by the name Kelzang Gyatso. He was recognized by two Khoshut princes in

Amdo Amdo ( �am˥˥.to˥˥ zh , c = 安多 , p = Ānduō ), also known as Domey (), is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions. It encompasses a large area from the Machu (Yellow River) to the Drichu (Yangtze). Amdo is mostly coterminous wi ...

and caught the interest of the Kangxi Emperor. Seeing the boy as a possible means of increasing Qing influence in Tibet, he brought him to the

Kumbum Monastery Kumbum Monastery (, THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription, THL ''Kumbum Jampa Ling''), also called Ta'er Temple, is a Tibetan gompa in Huangzhong County, Lusar, Xining, Qinghai, China. It was founded in 1583 in a narrow valley close to the vil ...

, out of reach of Lha-bzang Khan. Tibet was suddenly overrun by an invasion by the

Dzungar people The Dzungar people (also written as Zunghar or Junggar; from the Mongolian language, Mongolian words , meaning 'left hand') are the many Mongol Oirats, Oirat tribes who formed and maintained the Dzungar Khanate in the 17th and 18th centuries. H ...

in 1717. Lha-bzang Khan was killed in battle in

in November in the same year, and the country was occupied by the newcomers, who led a hard rule. The Dzungar leaders considered Yeshe Gyatso an imposter and deposed him. The Panchen Lama

Lobsang Yeshe Lobsang Yeshe (; also written Lobsang Yeshi) (1663–1737) was the fifth Panchen Lama of Tibet. He was born of a well-known and noble family in the province of Ü-Tsang, Tsang. His father's name was De-chhen-gyalpo and his mother's Serab-Drolma. ...

pleaded with the Dzungar not to kill the young man or his siblings, but did not receive a clear reply. However, Yeshe Gyatso was not ill-treated but merely confined to the Chakpori medical college. The Dzungar occupation of Tibet lasted until 1720 when a Qing expedition expelled the occupants. Kelzang Gyatso was brought from Kumbum to Lhasa in the same year and enthroned in the Potala on 15 October 1720. Yeshe Gyatso was taken out from Chakpori. His fate is not entirely clear from the sources, but it seems that he was deported to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

where he died in 1725. During the Losar festival in early 1726 the 7th Dalai Lama blessed the merits of the deceased Yeshe Gyatso, indicating that any hostility between the rival Dalai Lamas had ceased by this time due to Yeshe Gyatso's loss of political significance. The latter must nevertheless have had some followers, since his supposed reincarnation was discovered in

. However, the child soon died from

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

and no more incarnations were reported.

Appointment as Dalai Lama

Contested claims

See also

References

Further reading